Mixed results on state plan to close gaps in higher education

In 2000, state officials drafted an ambitious plan to close gaps in higher education in Texas: enroll more minority students, prepare more graduates for the workforce and bring Texas in line with peers across the nation.

Fifteen years later, the state has nearly achieved those goals, but some nagging problems remain. Enrollment among Hispanic students has been slow growing, even as the Hispanic population has skyrocketed in Texas. The state still faces a lingering gap in the number of students prepared for careers in science, technology, engineering and math, commonly known as STEM fields, which are some of the fastest-growing in Texas and the U.S.

"It's going to be one of the ongoing challenges, clearly," said state Sen. Kel Seliger, who chairs the Senate higher education committee that heard an update on the plan Tuesday. The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, tasked with carrying out the initiative, updated the committee.

Seliger said he was very encouraged by the progress that has been made.

"There are some real successes in higher education," Seliger said.

'Closing the Gaps'

The 15-year "Closing the Gaps" initiative set four goals: to add 630,000 students to the higher education pipeline, award 210,000 undergraduate degrees or certificates annually, increase the number of nationally recognized programs at colleges and universities in Texas and increase the state's share of federal funding for engineering research and other programs.

The state is on track to achieve most of those goals. Officials pointed to programs at the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University that have ranked in the top 10 in the nation as evidence that Texas universities are competing nationally. Two law programs at the University of Houstonhave also earned national attention.

And enrollment at Texas universities and colleges continues to grow. More than 589,000 more students are enrolled in Texas colleges or universities, and officials expect that will climb to at least 630,000 by next year.

The state made huge gains in black enrollment - already nearly doubling the goal of enrolling 64,000 more black students - but has struggled to boost Hispanic enrollment to the levels laid out in the plan. Hispanic enrollment has more than doubled since 2000, but is only at 86 percent of the 438,706 students the plan called to add over the 15 years.

210,000 degrees

Texas institutions in 2013 awarded more than 242,000 undergraduate credentials to students - more than doubling the annual awards in 2000 and passing the goal of 210,000 degrees or certificates. The state is on track to award 67,000 of those degrees to Hispanic students by next year.

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"We are making progress," said David Gardner, deputy commissioner at the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. "While we need more Hispanic students participating, the Hispanic students enrolling are much more successful than they were in the past."

Still, the number of credentials going to students in STEM fields has not kept up. There were just 51 percent more STEM degrees or certificates awarded in 2012.

"This is not unique to Texas, but we want to be the one to resolve it," Gardner said about the STEM shortage.